Jollification, Newton County, Missouri

JOLLIFICATION NEWTON COUNTY, MISSOURI

In 1848, a whiskey distillery was built on Capps Creek in eastern Newton County, about a mile west of the Newton/Barry county line. The town of Jollification grew up around the distillery and became a stage stop on the road from Springfield to Neosho and the Indian Territory. Everything but the distillery was burned during the Civil War, but the town rebuilt. In 1870, however, the railroad bypassed Jollification, which was ultimately more devastating than bushwhackers and arson. Again today, only the distillery -- later converted to a grist mill -- survives. Shown above, it is called Jolly Mill and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

20 April 1870, Neosho Times

Letter from Jollification Jollification, April 16, 1870

Editor of the Neosho Times:

In the column of the Investigator, under date of March 24th, will be seen an article headed, "Along the Line." The editor of that paper, while on his trip to Lebanon and back, stopping at very many points, finally about noon, on his return, called at Jollification. While waiting here for dinner, he first learned how this town came by its name. Some one informed him when only a distillery was here many years ago that old Able Landers was accustomed to visit the distillery every Saturday, and after exchanging corn for whiskey, would call a crowd of men up and propose to them to have a "jollification." After drinking and fighting, the old man invariably using the word "jollification," the name was applied to the town. This statement in regard to the place getting its name is most assuredly erroneous, and not only that, but an outrage on old man Landers, who was one of the most highminded, respectable citizens of the county, and was never known to come to town for the purpose of raising a jollification, which can be substantiated by numerous friends. Two fights only occurred near the distillery, neither of which he was involved in, and it is asserted by his friends that he had nothing to do with naming the place.

The Times and Investigator were rival Neosho papers of this era. No copies of the Investigator have survived.

Abel Landers was a prominent Newton County lawyer, landowner and politician in the 1840s and 1850s. He moved to Hood County, Texas, in 1858, where he was a prominent judge after the Civil War. For details see Abel Landers.

It is perhaps a measure of Landers political skill that he was able to convince the pious of Newton County that he shared their ways. He is remembered somewhat differently in Texas. There it is written that he periodically adjourned his trials to the saloon for refreshments and that he overruled three elections in a row locating the county seat. Only when the voters had the wisdom to locate it near land owned by him and his family did he find the election without procedural flaws. Thomas Taylor Ewell, Hood County History (1895). Ewell's Hood County History Online.

Abel was married to Sally Shipman, whose brother William was their neighbor near Jollification. When William died in early 1846, Landers was appointed administrator of his estate. The probate records show that beginning in 1848 Landers annually ask the court to approved contracts renting the Shipman lands for growing corn. With the construction of the distillery in that year, corn had become an important cash crop. For several years after the Civil War, one employee of the mill was Stephen Bailey, William Shipman's son-in-law and Abel Landers' nephew by marriage.

My great grandfather was William Abel Banks (right), named for his grandfather William Shipman and his great uncle, Abel Landers. In the 1870 Newton County census, his brother Moses and sister Annie were living with the Isbell family that originally owned the mill. As a young man, William worked for his Uncle Stephen Bailey there and fell out of one of the upper floor windows, nearly breaking his back. The family assumes that he, like Great Uncle Abel, was too high-minded to have sampled the wares before this unfortunate accident. For genealogical information, see William Abel Banks. Home: Historical Items from Barry & Newton Counties, Missouri